Reba McEntire’s family upset by Internet death hoax

Country star Reba McEntire has urged Internet pranksters to stop posting celebrity death hoaxes online after her nephew suffered a panic attack following one recent bogus tragedy.

Earlier this year, numerous websites reported that the country star had fallen from a mountain to her death in a remote part of Austria and her passing quickly became a trending topic on Twitter.

McEntire spoke out to halt the story spreading further but confesses her sister’s son got wind of the gossip first and was absolutely “devastated.”

During an appearance on “The Talk” Friday, she said, “First time I heard of it my sister called me, my older sister Alice, and she said her son, Trevor, called her, just crying. And he said, ‘Ma is Ba OK?’ Because they call me Ba. And Alice said, ‘Well I guess, why?’ And he said, ‘Well I just walked into a Get-n-Go (convenience store) and these people were going, ‘Oh my god she died, she fell off a mountain.”’

“And he was paying for his gas and then they said, ‘Oh man I just saw her in concert not too long ago.’ And he went, ‘Who you talking about?’ And they said, ‘Reba McEntire just got killed.’ He was devastated. He calls Alice just balling. And she said, ‘I’ll find out immediately.’ She called me and I said, ‘No I’m fine.’ And I had to walk him off the ledge.”

Since McEntire’s death hoax, more than a dozen other celebrities have fallen victim to web pranks as well, most recently actor Patrick Dempsey and singer Chris Brown.

And now the country icon is demanding that the disgusting trend stops, adding, “There are so many of those hoaxes that are just going around and I think it’s cruel. That’s not funny.”